YOU ARE MY PRIDE

A love letter to humans, all of whom originated in Africa.

Told in second person by Africa herself, this evolution story opens with images of landscapes as the narrator announces, “I am the mother of all humanity / I have a long history and a longer memory.” What she remembers most of all is “you, / my offspring of all colors / in all corners of the earth.” In beautifully evocative free verse, she reminds us of “our timeless bond,” and as she progresses through time, the illustrations show different landforms and then a hominid sitting in the mouth of a cave. The narrator emphasizes humans’ survival and the things Mother Africa provided that enabled them to live through difficult conditions: caves for shelter, forests for food, intelligence to outwit predators. Lewis’ gorgeous, dreamlike watercolors sharpen as they move closer to contemporary life. The book’s title has a double meaning: In one image, a lioness closes in on a swift-moving herd of gazelles while the narrator articulates her love for these animals, “but,” she says, “you, child, are my pride.” By labeling humans with the collective noun for lions, Africa claims all of us as her family and also makes clear that we are the creation of which she is proudest—an inspired use of wordplay. An appended evolutionary timeline will spark further scientific research. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A strikingly illustrated, innovative story of human evolution at the intersections of science and art.